Koreans perceive their health status negatively although their life expectancy is reported to be high, a report showed.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s “Health Statistics 2017” report, 32.5 percent of Koreans over 15 believe their health conditions are good/very good as of 2015. By gender, 37.3 percent of men and 27.9 percent of women thought so.

The Korean figure is significantly lower than the OECD average of 68.2 percent, where 70.7 percent of men and 65.9 percent women believe they are healthy.

Assuming that the ratio below 40 percent means a low health situation as felt by people, Korea and Japan were the only countries failing to meet the standard. Koreans and Japanese think their assessment of health is excessively negative than their actual health status. The equivalent ratios of Latvia (46.2 percent) and Portugal (46.4 percent) also failed to reach 50 percent.

Ironically, the life expectancy in Korea and Japan was higher than the OECD average (80.6 years) at 82.1 years and 83.9 years, respectively, although Koreans and Japanese had moderate levels of self-perceived health status. Japan has the longest life expectancy in the OECD countries, surpassing Switzerland and Spain (83.0 years).

In contrast, countries such as New Zealand (88.9 percent), Canada (88.1 percent), the United States (88.1 percent), and Australia (85.2 percent) regarded their health status highly.